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Ethnobotanical
Leaflets 14: 743-50, 2010. Ethno-Colour Concept
Among Some Tribals Inhabiting in Selected
Villages of Ganjam District, Pradipa Kumar
Das P.G. Department of Bio-Sciences, Mohuda, Berhampur-760002, Pradipadas @
gmail.com Issued: July
01, 2010 Abstract The
present communication reports on 13 ethno-botanically important plants
belonging to 12 families being traditionally used by some tribals of Ganjam
district, Odisha, for developing various aesthetic colours and their
combinations used in household purposes like decoration, heritage rituals,
functions, festivals, dye making and traditional health care . Key words: Ethno-colour,
Tribals, Ganjam district, Odisha. Introduction The life style of human
beings in the present day society complements with two important aspects
namely food and food habit which maintains the life ; and clothing, that helps
to identify oneself in others vision. The famous Oriya proverb is outstanding
in this regard as: “Ape ruchi bhojana, para ruchi bessa” which narrates: the
intake of food (bhojana) is according to one’s own (individual) choice and
the other ‘bessa’ (one’s set up) purely be based on other’s choice. By
‘others’ it is meant as “yugopojogi” which varies as the orientation is based
on the cultural tradition/age. The tribal culture in this regard is very much
adding to the subject. In both the items colour plays an important role for
acceptance/ rejection of them. A
human culture is the direct reflection of the interactive environment of
human society. Thus the ethnic communities (tribals) provide good clue on
aspects like ‘colour’ which plays an important role in their every day
society. Plants accepted by the ethnic communities is undoubtedly a practical
aspect which thrusts upon the importance of them in human life as source for
human existence ; two of which are already focused as food and clothing. Although the knowledge of
folk-medicines among the local priests cum Vaidyas (Jani kabirajas) in tribal
areas accounts much contribution towards healthcare management, the
application of the ethno-colour concept in life styles in this regard cannot
be ruled out. Scientifically colour can be defined as visual
expression caused due to a definite wavelength or a group of wavelengths of
light reflected by an object through one or more optical phenomena. The
concept of colour in the human mind is as old as the civilization; because
the direct impact of colour on human beings can easily be comprehended which
may be congnitive. Accordingly some colours induce states of energetic
disposition whereas others ensures sink into gloom and degradable status.
Colour affects various domains of our life like food, clothing, the domicile
status, mobile disposition and recreation. Even, colour inspires one’s
emotion and structural behavior. Odisha, a state of enriched tribal
culture comprises many tribal habitations. Fortunately, College of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mohuda is situated in a tribal area of Ganjam
district includes some indigenous tribal pockets like Kondh and Samuntia. Few
excerpts of their cultural life style throw some light on the subject as
described in this communication. Methods There are six distinct zones of
tribals in Indian context (Danda 1996), out of which Odisha state comes under
middle Indian zone along with other states like Bihar and West-Bengal which
includes about 65 tribes and constitute the major tribal population for
India. As per 1981 census, Odisha has about 62 scheduled tribes and
sub-tribes (Dash & Padhy, 2006). For the present study, some tribal
villages of Ganjam district have been selected. Ganjam district in Odisha
comprises its South-eastern part lies between 180 46´ to 200 17´ North latitude and 830 48´
to 850 10´ East longitude. It is bounded by land mass from three
sides and the ocean Bay-of-Bengal on one side. The tribal peoples of this
region mostly use indigenous plants along with other raw materials available
in their surroundings to prepare different colours. Most of the information
incorporated here are collected from Kondh and Samuntia tribe inhabiting in
some villages of Kukudakhandi block encompases Kerandimal hill ranges. As per 2001 census, total
population of this block is 11, 4,258 distributed in 99 villages which
include 60% Kondhs and 10% Samuntia tribes. Field studies were conducted in
tribal villages namely Chadheimara, Balarampalli, Baniamari, sanakaranjee, Burugaon,
Mohuda, Narasinghpur, Vikaspur, Tamana, Kanheiput, Lunighara, Chakundajala
and Kumarapura to collect information on the use of plants for colour
production. Data on the preparation of different colours and their
applications were gathered from indigenous experienced village folks. Local
names of the plants and their method of preparation by mixing with other raw
ingredients were recorded. The plants so collected, were processed for the
herbarial preparation and the herbaria are deposited in herbarium of the
Botany department of Berhampur University. The plants were properly
identified with the help of floras. The various plant species so collected
are arranged alphabetically along with their scientific and vernacular names,
family and parts used for preparation of colour are given in a tabular form
(Table-1). Table – 1: List of Plants used in
ethno - colour production.
Results The various methods for different
colour production using different plant parts with other ingredients along
with their applications as undertaken by the aboriginal tribals of these
localities are described as follows: 1.
Grey / Cement colour (O- Paunsha barna) i. Fresh cow dung is mixed well
with burnt charcoal ash in adequate proportion upto requirement manually to
produce grey or cement colour. Amount of the ash depends on the choice of the
user to get desired intensity of it. ii. Fresh cow dung mixed with
incompletely burnt paddy straw ash to produce blackish green or deep grayish
green colour. Concentrated pastes so resulted as
above are diluted with water and applied on the walls of the houses by a
wrapped cloth comparable with white washings in urban dwellings. Usually
performed by the tribal woman folk to give good look to their houses, aided
by folk hand arts using limestone liquid paste. 2. Black colour (O-Kala ranga) Dried fruits of Aanla (Emblica officinalis) boiled with water in an iron vessel
container and left overnight, sieved through a cotton cloth to get the black
colour extract. As per their desire, the concentrate may be diluted with
water and applied over particular sites on walls for wall decorative purpose. 3. Equal quantities of dried flower
petals of Palasa (Butea monosperma) and powdered seed
(flour) of Bilachana (Lathyrus sativus) mixed thoroughly to
get the orange colour, used for decorating interior of houses especially
walls of temple spot in the dwellings. 4. Saffron colour (O-Jhilapi
ranga barna) 250 gm of dried petals of Palasa (Butea monosperma) soaked in half litre of water overnight, sieved
through a fine cloth to get saffron colour. Used for decorative during
festivals and interior of houses to draw arts / back ground colours. 5. Red colour (O-Lal ranga) i) About 250 gm of peeled pericarp
of Dalimba (Punica granatum) boiled in one litre of water for half an hour;
kept overnight and filtered by a fine cloth to get red colour extract. ii) About 200 gm of Krushnachuda (Delonix regia) flower petals are soaked in half litre of water
overnight, sieved through a fine cloth to get red coloured liquid used for
decoration of houses and to impart good look to pulses for easy selling. 6. Bright Orange-red colour (O-Narangi
barna) Two spoonful of Haldi (Curcuma longa) powder was mixed with a pinch of lime and few
drops of water to get a paste of bright orangish-red colour. It was diluted
with water as per requirement before use for decoration of wooden furnitures
and interior of houses. 7. Green colour (O-Sagua ranga) i) Equal volumes of Mehendi (Lowsonia inermis) leaf powder and powdered seed (flour) of Bilachana (Lathyrus sativus) are mixed together to get green colour, used in
marriage ceremonies and other festivals as colour powder. ii) Equal volumes of Palanga (Spinacia oleracea), Dhania
(Coriandrum sativum) and Podina (Mentha piperita) leaves mixed together and made into a paste with
water to get green colour paste or diluted with required quantity of water
and filtered through a fine cloth to get deep green colour liquid used for
decorating interiors of houses, marriage pendals, and on forehead of females
as dots instead of sindur as the symbol of married Hindu females. 8. Yellow colour (O- Haladia
ranga) i) Equal volumes of Haladi (Curcuma longa) powder and Rice
(Oryza sativa) powder mixed in
water to give a yellow coloured paste. Used in marriage ceremonies for
colouring newly wedded couples. ii) Dry powdered petals of Gendu (Tegetes patula) and Sebati
(Chrysanthemum coronarium) are
mixed with equal volume of powdered seed (flour) of Bilachana (Lathyrus
sativus), boiled for half an hour and left overnight for use in the
morning as yellow colour paste during festivals and marriage ceremonies for
pendal and wall decoration. Discussion The study revealed that,
within the preview of knowledge on ethno-colour concept, there are 13 plant
species belonging to 12 families are used in these areas for production of
eight described colours. Single plant / plant part or a combination of
plants/plant parts along with some common household raw materials are
described for production of different colours. Techniques of developing
colours from natural sources are quite interesting as these are ecofriendly,
non-toxic, aesthetic, and durable. While survey it is noticed that, most of
the houses of villages including Kotha
ghora are externally painted with grayish black colour decorated by hand
arts drawn from white colour paste of lime stone. Interior of houses are
painted with light green colour. Use of these cow dung based colours keeps
the environment sacred hygienic and free from mosquitoes and other insects.
Naturally green colour conveys vitality, tranquility, hope, freshness
balance, and harmony, which are quite observed. It is seen that in various
festivals, marriage ceremonies, rituals etc they use their own prepared
colours from natural sources instead of synthetic colours. From ancient times to the present
the colour of nature have provided a calming and invigorating stimulates to
our bodies and minds, enhancing our emotions, speech and nervous system, the
reds, blues, greens, yellows and whites of trees, flowers and earth help to
inspire and regenerate our energy. All colours of nature are highly
evocative. Today, life is complicated and confusing and our minds can become
unsettled and weighed down by work, daily activities and struggles. So we
take vacations each year to rest and travel, to go to the mountains or
seashore to regenerate ourselves. It brings balance to our minds. Tribals
being the inhabitants of natural forests by birth, this concept of colour are
reflected well in every sphere of their life activities. For this indigenous
knowledge of colour concept coupled with ethno-medicines, tribals who live
far away from the so called civilized society are fortunate enough they do
not have acquired infectious diseases, oftenly suffer from water borne
diseases, and malnutrition due to lack of proper sanitation and poverty.
However, application of these natural colours in their normal life activities
forces them to conserve nature by maintaining those useful plants within
their vicinity either as live boundaries around their houses, as orchards or
at village periphery, which gives natural protection to all villagers from
the attack of many epidemics, mosquito borne diseases, skin infections etc.
this is one of the reason for which the prevalence of many acute diseases
like diabetes, anxiety, hypertension, tuberculosis, bronchitis, neuritis etc.
in tribal communities is very low than the urbans. Tribals are also very much
happy and satisfied to be in harmony with the natural colours. So, this traditional knowledge of tribals
on colour concept is of immense useful for the betterment of urban
communities by proper application in their day to day life activities, pharmaceuticals,
cosmetics, beverages, heritage rituals, functions, celebrations etc by
avoiding toxic and harmful chemical colours as far as possible in order to
establish a healthy society. Further survey in this line dealing with other
community will definitely reveal a quite good amount of information on use of
many other plants for colour production, which can be implemented in colour
industries, cosmetic industries and pharmaceutical industries to substitute
toxic synthetic colours. Acknowledgement The
author is extremely thankful to Prof. S.K. Dash, Head, P.G.Dept. of
Biosciences, C.P.S., Mohuda for critical evaluation of the manuscript and the
tribal priests & resource persons for providing valuable information
during the course of investigation. References Brahmam, M. & Saxena, H.D. 1994,1995,1996. The Flora of Orissa,
Vol. I – IV, R.R.L. & Orissa Forest Development
Corporation Ltd.Bhubaneswar, Orissa. Danda,
A.K. 1996. Tribal Ethnography, Monograph 5, I.C.S.S.R, India. Dash,
S.K. & Padhy, S.N., 2006. Review
on ethnomedicines for diarrhoea diseases from Orissa: Prevalence versus culture, J. Hum. Ecol.,
20 (1): 59-64. |